deVere reveals it provided evidence regarding Belvedere

deVere Group said it provided evidence of wrongdoing regarding the alleged shady dealings of Mauritius-based Belvedere Management Group.

The independent financial advisory organisation further stated that it provided the information to Miami-based OffshoreAlert, which has described Belvedere as “an essentially criminal enterprise”.

OffshoreAlert, an investigative financial news service, added that Belvedere has evidence of “funds that are blatantly fraudulent, including a current 130 million dollar Ponzi scheme in Cayman” and “Funds that simply disappear or fail in dubious circumstances”.

“deVere Group welcomes the investigation into Belvedere Management Group,” said a deVere Group spokesperson.

“We’re pleased to support the work being carried out by OffshoreAlert, championing the progress being made by the authorities and agencies investigating this matter, and are happy to continue to provide evidence of wrongdoing when we find it.”

The spokesperson added that deVere suspects that this case could turn out to be one of the largest financial scams in history and it will do whatever is necessary to recover value lost by investors worldwide.

deVere indicated that it was approached by the fund manager of a Belvedere-administered fund to invest in the Strategic Growth Fund (SGF), which was outperforming the market in the early years at the time of any client introductions.

However, from 2011, the SGF considerably underperformed and clients were advised to withdraw. In early 2013, the deVere CEO issued a memo to all his managers advising them to ask clients to withdraw from the SGF.

A few days later, the fund administrator suspended the fund due to, it can be reasonably assumed, according to deVere, the many withdrawals from deVere clients.

“deVere, other brokerages, and clients across the world, have been badly let down by the custodians, namely the administrators and fund managers, of these funds,” the spokesperson said.

“We are deeply concerned that alarm bells were not rung before now by those who had an overview of the situation. It has come to light that there were seemingly clear warning flags and that these seem to have been ignored by professional service providers trusted by deVere and other brokerages.”

The spokesman further stated that deVere is urging all those who have any information regarding the case to report it directly to the authorities.

“We’re calling on all stakeholders in the financial services industry to work more closely together to ensure that this does not, and cannot, happen again. This case must act as a catalyst to drive up client protection and wider industry standards.”